Daily Yellowstone journal., 1887-08-26
HOW MEN LIVE AND DIE.
Pssuiiarities Of the Worlds Records Of
Mortality-yitai Statistics

feSulinrittes OF the Wofsus 1ecorus u
Mortaiity-vitai Statistics
Scarcely a day passes when DIR. John
7. Maggie, deputy registrar Of vital Stats
tics. does not receive a bulletin or PAM
phlet showing the state of public health
In some more or less remote country. In
return he sends information to almost
every civilized government on earth. His
little Office in Mott street is filled with
choice documents, written in English,
German, French, Portuguese, Spanish,
Russian, Roumanian, Danish, Swedish,
Hungarian, Italian and other tongues.
Complicated tables come in ~avalanches
from Great Britain and her colonies in all
quarters of the globe. A report from
Calcutta shows that the .'Amalgamated
busbee and tank committee met four
times during the first quarter of the fiscal
wear 1867. There is q bibulous sug-
gestion about the title Of this useful body
which is not diminished by the statement
that two Of their meetings were held out
Of doors.
OF all the European countries Rou-
mania is the most industrious in the
manufacture Of statistics. She sends out
tevery year dozens Of volumes bound in
gayly colored paper, each bearing the i'm
print of the government bureau which is
sued il. Finland is determined that no
one shall be kept in doubt as to her exact
condition. In vast deserts of ten and
twelve syllable words is an occasional
oasis of French, which gives a general
idea of what the Finnish statistician is
trying 10 get at. Private lunatic asylums
are ''yleisten sairachuoneiden lasaretti
~osastoiza." and public madhouses ''hal-
Observation-Disclosures" Official reports
from Servia are printed in letters which
had q narrow escape from being Greek.
Consonants, particularly ''h" and 81"
are strewn with an unsparing hand
through the Swedish compilation. The
Latin names of diseases are given in con-
nection with the Swedish, and a reader
who pays his money may take his choice.
''Tub. Observation-Disclosures" is a
fashionable lung disease, and ''fyellerigal
Anskap'' is delirium tremens. Protracted
drinking brings q Swede to alcoholics
luhuoiil. hilu q bdtit W iilccNk~
dom. When a Stockholm citizen sue
cumbs to old age the doctor writes
s'alderdonisaptyning' on the death GER
~tificate, and everybody knows what the
trouble was. Neatly printed and volumin-
Gus reports come from Central and South
America, Venezuela, Colombia and the
Argentine Republic issue documents in
sonorous Spanish. Little Guatemala's
official pamphlets have gorgeous red bor-
ders
The unspeakable Turk has a soul above
figures, and never takes the pains to find
out the sanitary condition Of his empire.
There is a story of a United States consul
in a Turkish town who asked the local
pasha for estimates of the population.
In a characteristic reply, beginning .'0h,
my lamb.' the pasha said that he had
dwelt for forty years in the city, yet he
had never counted the houses over the
people that dwelt therein. He failed to
see why any man should seek after infor-
nation not ~vohchsafed by the wisdom of
Allah.
Several years ago DIR. Maggie SAYS re-
ports from China and Japan were printed
in the vernacular. Now those interest
ing countries send to barbarian lands
hard facts in good English. The Celestial
empire shows a weakness for brilliant
yellow covers, like those Of an old time
dime novel. But the medical reports of
the Chinese cities, garnished with mete-
geological tables and temperature charts
that look like maps Of a yacht race, n
tain matter more interesting than any.
thing in yellow covered fiction. DIR. A.
Henry, treating of the health of lchang,
says that although the scenery is majestic
and imposing. the filthy habits Of the ma
uves give TO the place unhealthy, NAL
odorous and un@sthetic features. The
people are strong, but drink hard and
smoke much opium. They never battle
in water, but build fires in the open air
and stand where the smoke will envelop
their naked bodies. There are strong
prejudices against European physicians
aih post mortem examinations. Heat
apoplexy, called lei ssu, kills many China
men. A native of Chekiang said that in
his province sunstrokes were unknown,
although people often died from drink
ing too much cold water. At Soochow
sudden alterations Of cold and heat
caused agues and bowel complaints. 1t
was gwen out that the god of pestilence
had descended, and people, discarding
doctors and drugs, crowded the temples,
entirely neglecting treatment. There was
an alarming mortality among the hens at
Hankow. They were suddenly seized
with fits and died at once. At Shanghai
an old woman went from house TO house,
where people were III, TO drive away dew
lis. The incredible filth in which the
lower class Chinese live, their dense igno-
rance and utter carelessness cause fire.
quent epidemics, and make the work Of
relief exceedingly difficult. New York
G